This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
The strings of a guitar are anchored near the lowermost end of the guitar body by a tailpiece. Occasionally, this tailpiece function is served by a vibrato, or tremolo, which is a piece of equipment designed to produce a unique sound effect similar to a singer's vibrato.
Vibrato mechanisms provide a means for changing the tension on all the strings of a guitar simultaneously. Changing the tension creates a pitch change in each vibrating string. This is accomplished by a moving tailpiece which pivots about an axis substantially perpendicular to the strings causing the length of the strings to vary. A handle is provided to facilitate a pulse-like pivoting of the tailpiece while simultaneously playing the instrument.
Traditional vibrato devices are installed on top of the guitar in an original equipment installation, or after removing an existing tailpiece in an after-market installation. The installation procedure is to string the strings over a pivoting metal bar, called the string bar, which is a component of the vibrato mechanism. Pins project from the string bar to connect with the strings by threading through a hole in the ball-end of each string.
The range of pitch change is limited both by the radius of rotation of a vibrato device and the degree of articulation with respect to its axis of rotation. Because a traditional vibrato mounts to the surface, and does not require the routing of a nesting location in the body of a guitar, its profile is relatively shallow. As a consequence, the range of a tremolo is essentially limited by the radius of the string bar. Traditional vibratos have the problem of tuning stability, especially in applications that don't use a specialized bridge. Some of the specialized bridges intended for use with these vibratos are problematic themselves for tuning instability. The current tremolo designs utilize low friction designs but do not provide any guidance of the string to maintain a properly aligned position. To date, this is accomplished somewhat unsuccessfully by the bridge.
The present teachings improves upon the widely-used vibrato design. It too addresses the aforementioned deficiencies, namely tonal instability, by providing a novel, universal and inexpensive vibrationally stable tremolo.